SquareMeal Review of La Trompette

Gold Award

Regularly applauded as a “top-notch neighbourhood restaurant”, La Trompette is smart, serene, sophisticated and civilised – everything you might expect from a Michelin-starred restaurant, but without the stinging prices, pompous attitude or fawning staff.

Whether you’re here for a celebratory evening bash or a chatty midweek lunchtime catch-up, the elegant dining room always looks the part with its contemporary artworks, polished floors, well-spaced tables and views over a classy terrace. Everything gels, and you can almost feel the good vibrations as a pleasant hum of chattering conversation fills the air.

Carefully sourced ingredients also get the attention and respect they deserve in main courses ranging from Herdwick lamb accompanied by crushed charlotte potatoes, Tropea onions, lemon and summer savory to aged honey-roast duck, roast French corn-fed chicken or wild sea bass with summer beans, octopus, and salsa verde.

After that, the magnificent cheeseboard is a must, but we also suggest dipping into fruity seasonal desserts such as the English gooseberry soufflé or warm poached apricots with wafers and honey ice cream. Meanwhile, readers give full marks to the “efficient, attentive staff”, the “good-value” lunch menu and the voluminous 600-bin wine list.

Always fun and relaxed, this is the crown in Chiswick's restaurant scene.

David H

First visit since re-opening, and thankfully its just as good

10 August 2013

When a restaurant that you enjoy enough to visit three times in six months closes its doors for a couple of months and re-opens bigger, with a virtually brand new kitchen brigade and many changes front of house too, it's understandable to have concerns about the effect all this will have on the type and quality of food on offer. No need to worry in my view- the menu and the food quality were both indicative of a seamless changeover rather than a painful revolution. If you liked it before you'll like it now. And the visual impact of the place hasn't changed much either, if you ignore the private dining area tucked round a corner and a few extra tables.
I shan't go through what we ate blow by blow, except to say that the blackberry souffle with lemon curd ice-cream was very good indeed and was not overpowered by the lemon curd, in the same way that my soft and gentle raviolo of suckling pig was complemented rather than beaten into submission by the accompanying barbecue sauce. I thought I might have a little quibble on the wine- a minor claret, but whilst initially closed it opened up nicely as the meal progressed. Everything we ate was at the very least competent and sometimes much better. The restaurant was half full, so maybe not a real test of service, though what we received was timely and pleasant. The bill for the two of us with wine and service was £100 which in our book is decent value for food of this quality
Altogether a very good meal, and we'll certainly be back

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Wendy M

4+ Years on - Update Due

29 July 2013

This is convenient for meeting friends who live west of the city, and pleasingly the last few visits have renewed our interest in wanting to dining here. I always liked Anthony Boyd's cooking when he was based at The Glasshouse, Kew, so it has come as no surprise to me that this venue now holds greater appeal as a result of the menu and competent, reliable cooking standard. Service is always dependable within this group, so increase in score is easily justified (2012/13).
I had been longing to return to La.T. having been recommended it last year by a regular diner and also recalling good memories of my own from a visit in the past. We booked end Oct 2008.
Décor and atmosphere like the rest of the Brucey group is informal which we like. I ordered boudin blanc in Madeira sauce served on a bed of spinach which was afloat. How it arrived without the very thin juice being spilt was a miracle, and with no starch on the plate I would have welcomed a strainer. The sausage itself was very good but I am sure that the sauce/jus was not as intended and perhaps worsened by poorly drained spinach. It had a slight acrid taint as though some cooking juices had been burnt but no sweetness present as would have been expected from fortified wine input. When asked if everything was alright, I mentioned the foregoing (minus the bit about acrid/burnt), but waitress returned to tell me that it was how it was meant to be. I can’t help wonder why it is no longer served that way – now with roast apple, bacon and mustard sauce and to be fair could purely be for grounds of variation/seasonal change. I think red mullet followed but the rest was not good enough to be memorable.
My partner and I had 3 unremarkable courses between us, the fourth as above. It was all sloshed down with reasonable quality wine; my yearning now quelled and desire to return again waned. Had I booked another night, it may have been as good as Sq.M. states in preamble if chef was on form. Looking at Glasshouse latest menu I could eat the lot, but not perhaps all at once. I hope Anthony Boyd’s standard is as good as it used to be when it was a ‘regular haunt’ of ours. He and his sous chef had been working together for over 15 years and it showed, or should I say it didn’t because you could not detect when Head Chef had a night off. Fantastic sommelier at Kew too. Anyone been there recently?

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Jonathan W

Still the Queen of Chiswick

17 July 2013

We eat at Glass House more than Trompette, so this was the first visit since they expanded the restaurant. The place was totally full (including the private room) on a Tuesday night.
The crab starter, and our beef and guinea fowl main courses, were all excellent. The portions were a little small for the hungry or greedy. Raspberry souffles were somewhat overcooked, and I think would have been better with a coulis rather than ice cream. But overall we were very happy with the food.
Service was a little stretched, but they coped well with the crowd.
Owing to menu supplements we ended up at £150 for two with a very modest amount to drink.

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Johnny G

La Trompette - it's seen better days.

10 May 2013

I've been coming to Trompette for years and considered it to be the height of haute-cuisine in Chiswick, but on eating there last night, although I can still say the food is excellent, since the refurbishment and change of Chef earlier this year, everything else has slipped.
Service is very slow (our neighbour had to wait 30 mins for a starter!); fewer waiting staff; no longer a dedicated Maître’D, nor sommelier; new decor lacks the old intimacy, and overall ambience is simply lacking; the bill was simply dumped on the table without our requesting it, straight after they left the coffees! What's worse is that formerly 3 courses for two people, with a modest bottle of wine and coffee used to be around £60-65 per head, now its £90-95.
In short, it's lost its crown and probably soon its Michelin Star as well I would have though, which really belongs to the previous chef. Such primacy I think has now been passed on to Michael Nadra or Quantus – both of which are a stone's throw away from Trompette, have fine menus, lovely service and don’t break the bank – this last point being so important during recession, Trompette had better re-think things or I fear for its longevity.